Good Advice for GOLD Leaders

Leading a voluntary project in Cambodia this summer is going to be, shall we say, challenging?  And before I met the rest of the team I'm taking, I sought some advice on how to get along with them from Jade, my own team leader from last year.

So what was the advice?  It comes in a three-point-plan and goes a bit like this:

When you meet them for the first time, go to the right place.  (This may have been because Jade went to Southport instead of Stockport the first time we met :D)

Give your team chocolate.

Don't be too nice to them.

I can't say this was exactly what I was hoping for in the advice stakes, but I figured to heck with it all and bough chocolate and double checked my directions.  I also asked the team who went to Cambodia last year if they had any good advice.  Emphasis on the word good.  Their response?

Bring some bolt cutters.

...Why?

Because they've left us lots of useful resources in Cambodia for us to use this summer (lovely!) but it's all padlocked into a bad and they can't remember the combination.

Yikes.  And this, folks, this is all I have to go on.  Nightmare.  But worth a scrapbook page I thought.

This page was a sort-of-scraplift from a page I made before that I really loved (and still do).  It works for a single little picture and lots of journalling.  I'd like to make it a few more times actually.  

Although now I think about it, I possibly just enjoy mucking about with butterfly/heart confetti.  It's too close to call.  I made this layout at the Bloggers' Weekend we had which I have yet to write about, but has been covered marvelously elsewhere :D  Anyone recognise a heart punch?

Kisses xxx

P.S. I have been arguing with Flickr lately and therefore not been able to update the blog (sadface) but now that I have emerged the triumphant victor, I can reveal that I did this at the weekend :D

P.P.S. Yes that's a hand-knitted Gryffindor scarf.  Smug face.  We took the Guides on the Harry Potter Studio Tour!

Sneak Peek: Miss Smith at Shimelle

I'm delighted to be featured over at Shimelle.com today.  I LOVE Shimelle's website, classes and projects and so I jumped at the chance to guest on her blog.  You can find my layout and full details there; it's a tutorial for making a page which tells two stories!

At first glance, the page tells one very sensible version of events.  But open it up, and you can find a whole different story...

In other news, I've had a fabulous weekend away with some of my fellow scrappy bloggers (and I'm eagerly awaiting the moment when I get to see some pictures!).  Everyone I met was truly lovely and while it was initially a little strange to meet people for the first time, but still feel you already know them, I was really overwhelmed by what the brilliant community scrappers create.  If you're reading, I had an amazing time :D

It's been a crazy week with lots on (my favourite kind) so it was great to make time to just relax and crop.  So I hope to pop back soon with a page, or even two, but for now, I'll leave it here.

Kisses xxx

P.S. I had to summon a sixth former to vanquish an enormous and terrifying (i.e. smallish and dead) spider in my classroom today.  I refuse point blank to educate spiders, even dead ones, on matters of hyperbolic integration.  Yuck. 

P.P.S. That's yuck to spiders, not to integration.  That's quite cool and twirly.

P.P.P.S. The page I made for Shimelle ties in quite neatly with my scrapbooking class 'Telling Tales'.  If you joined it, it might add in another idea!  If you'd like to join, it's now available in self-paced form and you can find full information here.  It costs £6 and every penny goes to support a voluntary project I'm participating in this summer in Cambodia with Girlguiding.